Author: Landsborough, David
Biography:
LANDSBOROUGH, David (1779-1854: ODNB)
He was the eldest child of John McLandsborough and his wife Isabel (Hugan), and was born at Dalry, Glenken, Kirkcudbrightshire, on 11 Aug. 1779. He was educated at the local parish school, Dumfries Academy, and Edinburgh University (from 1798) where he studied divinity but also attended lectures in the sciences: botany, chemistry, anatomy, and surgery. He dropped “Mc” from his surname while he was at university. Licensed to the Church of Scotland in 1808, he was ordained minister at Stevenston, Ayrshire, in 1811. There, he studied the natural history of his parish and of Arran—the subject of his only book of poetry (republished in 1847 with field studies). His botanical, zoological, ornithological, and marine studies led him to identify previously unrecognised species and earned him the nickname “the Ayrshire naturalist.” In 1817 he married Margaret McLeish of Port Glasgow; they had four sons and three daughters before Margaret’s early death in Nov. 1834. Landsborough joined the Free Kirk in 1843 and moved to Saltcoats where a considerable drop in income led him to other means for supporting his family, including lecturing across Britain and working with his daughters to develop albums of algae for sale. He was elected associate of the Linnean Society in 1849 and, a year later, established the Ayrshire Naturalists’ Club. In later life he travelled to Gibraltar and Tangier. He contracted cholera while visiting the sick during an outbreak of the disease in Ayrshire and died on 12 Sept. 1854. He was buried in a plague pit in the churchyard at Stevenston; there is a memorial to him. His extensive other publications include scientific papers. (ODNB 27 Sept 2019; ancestry.co.uk 23 Dec. 2024) SR